Plum IVR Support

What are some common methods for authenticating a user. Specifically, I want to allow users to call the IVR, speak their account number for access then if the account number is recognized, give them the option to register or do something else (make a payment without registering for example). If they wish to register, they must establish a password or PIN or something.

What I would like to do is record a word or phrase and save it in the database. Then use this together with the account number to authenticate the user the next time they use the IVR. Is this possible or must I have them use a numeric PIN?

I'm open to other suggestions - what's best practice?

Hello,

The standard form of user authentication is to use an account id of some kind and a user defined PIN. These mechanisms provide a guaranteed way of identifying the user and validating that they are who they say they are.

The Plum IVR system does support speech recognition, but given what you are attempting to do, it is not likely the most efficient means of authenticating the user. Using a longer DTMF PIN does as much to guarantee the users identification as speech recognition and does not suffer any of the pitfalls (environment noise, illness, etc).

The final option is that you could purchase an external IVR system that does speaker verification. You would upload recordings from the Plum IVR system to your IVR application server and then from there tie into the speaker verification system. Plum does not currently have a service that we recommend for this, but it is likely to be a very costly setup (in both initial cost and overall development effort). Also, these IVR systems require that callers call in at least once to train them prior to authenticating the user.

Regards,
Plum Support